A Peaky Blinders Star Was Devastated When The Final Season's Villain Changed

Through the lengthy history of Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and the "Peaky Blinders," Birmingham's notorious crime family has seen off plenty of threats. Some of them have forged weary alliances in your classic "enemy of my enemy is my friend" dynamic, but for Finn Cole's Michael Gray, it was a blooming danger from within the criminal family itself.

Michael made his debut in the second and best season of "Peaky Blinders" as the long-lost son of Polly Gray (Helen McRory), who initially made a great effort to keep him out of the family business. That proved to be a failed effort, however, as Michael became a strong asset as the family business accountant and gradually made his way up the ladder to the point that tension gradually began to build between Polly's estranged son and her brother at the head of the organization. It was this gradual shift of sides that Cole was initially heartbroken to see.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about his character's journey, the actor admitted, "In all honesty, I was gutted because I was such a fan of the gang and that world. So I was like, 'Oh, damn, I'm going to be a villain.' But once I embraced it, I had a lot of fun, and we were able to really take it to the next level." Naturally, the audience reacted to the wayward son of the Shelby family eventually becoming one of their greatest adversaries, but just like any actor daring to take on the hero of the story, Cole relished in the response. 

Just like "Game of Thrones" had Jack Gleeson's Joffrey and "The Walking Dead" had Jeffrey Dean Morgan batting as Negan, the best TV villains are the ones that earn every bit of hate they incite. In Cole's case, he was happy with the not-so-warm reception he received as the Shelby's Judas. "Now, what's really cool is people send me all these threats and are really nasty to me. I actually really like it," Cole confessed. "People on the street will come up to me and be like, 'I love you, but I hate you.' And that's the biggest compliment that we can get as actors. It means that we did our job right, and I'm looking forward to playing another villain again, I must say."

When asked if he thought Tommy and Michael were always going to end up at war with one another, Cole couldn't confirm, deeming the pandemic and the passing of his co-star, Helen McRory a factor."I can't give you a definitive answer, but I don't think so. With what had happened and the time that it took and certain actors being unavailable for different reasons, things had to change," explained the thorn in the side of the show's legendary anti-hero. But did it always have to be that way? Was there any chance that Michael and Tommy could've seen eye to eye? Well, according to Tommy Shelby himself, Michael was a representation of one of the few things the head of the Peaky Blinders was scared of — progress.

While it might have taken time for Cole to acclimatize himself to be stood on opposite sides to his on-screen cousin, he eventually knew exactly where he wanted to take the character. Michael became someone obsessed with power and, in turn, a threat that Tommy was wary of, leading to his demise in the final season. According to Cole, the two had a talk long before things really blew up between Michael and Tommy, where Murphy broke down the two things that can put the fear in the coolest customer of "Peaky Blinders."

"Cillian said to me in season four or season five, 'Tommy has all of these threats around him at all times. That's the life that he leads. Some of them are these irresolvable dilemmas, one of which is his addiction issues,'" he recalled. There was also the issue that put Michael on the radar of the head of the Shelby family for all the wrong reasons. "And the other one is that the next generation is going to come through. For people like him, the next generation are the most dangerous people because they come with new ideas, and that's scary to him." We can only wait and see how this aging gangster handles the future when he returns in the Netflix "Peaky Blinders" film, "The Immortal Man," and whatever future plans the streaming service has for the Shelbys.